12 | FEBRUARY 1 • 2024 

you had told me when I first met them 
a couple years ago that I’
d be putting 
on tefillin every day, I would have been 
pleasantly pleased to hear it, but it would 
have been surprising.
”
Sitting with the boys reminds him of 
life’s real priorities and motivates him 
to do better, he explains. “It’s just about 
shutting up and listening, I think,
” he 
says. “That’s how much white noise we’ve 
got going on, that we don’t allow the time 
and space to listen to these youngsters.
” 
More Fridays than not they’ll pop in 
for a chat, talk about the parshah and 
what’s happening in their lives, he says. 
“They come from all over the place, 
one of the young guys, his family lives 
in Guatemala, and it’s just neat hearing 
about their schedules,
” he says. “They 
work so hard at the yeshiva, then when 
they can travel home, you get to see some 
excitement in their faces going home and 
coming back.
”
In addition to meeting with the Friday 
Boys, he says he also encouraged an old 
coworker to connect with them. “It’s all 
about having roots and a foundation, 
and so the stronger your roots and foun-

dation are, it doesn’t matter how many 
times you get pushed over, you’ll bounce 
right back up,
” he says. “I want that for 
myself, I want that for the people I care 
about.
” 
Alex Lebedinski, an attorney who 
works in Troy, said hello to the Friday 
Boys in an office common space about a 
decade ago, and has been meeting with 
them since. “It’s a very positive experi-
ence,
” he says, noting that they come as a 

pair with an older student and a younger 
student, who then often takes over the 
route when the older one graduates. “It’s 
been rewarding to see these kids, and a 
lot of times they come for years at a time, 
two, three, four years, and it’s good to see 
them grow as they develop personally 
and as well as scholars,
” he says. 
During COVID, they even came 
to his house, and during a pandemic 
Chanukah, he recalls, a whole group 

OUR COMMUNITY
COVER STORY

continued from page 11

Students Shneur Deren 
and Berel Lipskar 
share mitzvot on their 
Friday route.

A Friday Boy assists 
with tefillin.

continued on page 14

‘GUARANTEE’ IS 
IN THE NAME.

Wayne State University has always been committed to providing a 

quality and affordable education. 

The Wayne State Guarantee is further proof of that commitment. 

It provides 100% free tuition and fees for qualified students using 

a combination of federal, state, and WSU scholarships and grants. 

Most students whose families earn $70,000 or less and have 

$50,000 or less in assets qualify. 

Go to wayne.edu/apply to learn more about the Wayne State 

Guarantee, other competitive scholarships and attractive financial 

aid opportunities, and apply by the merit scholarship deadlines. 
wayne.edu/apply

First-year fall 2024 student deadline: April 1, 2024

Transfer fall 2024 student deadline: June 1, 2024